Web Entrepreneur Tools And Resources – eBay Pulse
by Veronica Stone on December 12th, 2007
Market Research
Knowing your market is an essential facet of online business. It may be true that the Internet offers the world’s largest customer base, but in order to take advantage of this webmasters and e-store owners need to do their research. As an e-commerce entrepreneur (as with any business owner) this includes researching market trends to find the most viable and profitable products.
What Is eBay Pulse?
eBay Pulse is a service offered by the eBay website. It provides figures and trends pertaining to the most popular and the most sought after items on eBay. Even if you do not intend to sell any items on the auction powerhouse itself, this tool can provide invaluable and insightful information into the most popular products.
Accessing The eBay Pulse Website
Access to the Pulse section of eBay is simple, although it is important that you work predominantly with the site specific to your country because trends do vary. To view the main Pulse site the address is www.pulse.eBay.com. For other countries simply replace the .com with the appropriate top level domain. For example, to view the latest trends for the UK you would visit www.pulse.eBay.co.uk.
Finger On The Pulse – Popular Searches
Popular Searches is a list of the items that have been searched for most frequently, and are calculated according to the number of searches conducted. This gives a good indication of the number of people looking for a particular item. If you are considering selling on eBay then you should conduct further research, including the kind of price that these items sell for, the most successful listing keywords, and more.
Finger On The Pulse – Category Selector
In order to dig deeper into the bowels of eBay searches there is a category selector at the top of the page. This drop down menu includes a substantial list of categories that you can research. Once you have found a category that is most closely related to your area of business, select it and wait for the page to update automatically.
For instance, if you choose the Crafts category, you’ll see the most popularly searched items on eBay that fall within that category. Clicking the Category selector again gives potential subcategories related to Crafts items. This enables you to further delve into the popularity of items that are being listed on eBay.
Finger On The Pulse – Largest Stores
On the right of the Pulse screen is a pane that displays the largest stores. Again, when you first log on to the Pulse site this list will be populated with the most popular stores over the entire eBay site. Once you choose a category, the list will then be populated with the largest stores within that category, or subcategory.
The Largest Stores figures are determined by the number of active listings, and do not account for sales or any other figure. While these can be used as a guide to the kind of item that others believe will sell, they may not provide an accurate assessment of the actual items that will sell.
Finger On The Pulse – Most Watched Items
One final, and potentially useful, section of the Pulse website is the “Most Watched Items”. When you first visit the Pulse page and no category has been selected it is more than likely that this will be filled with cars. Cars and other vehicles are typically the most watched items, barring any major events or news coverage for specific items.
As with the other sections of Pulse, though, once you have selected a category or subcategory the information becomes more precise and more beneficial. This can help track down more expensive or rarer items that fewer people search for, but still generates a lot of interest from those that view the item.
Combining Pulse With Other Research Information
The information contained in Pulse is obviously limited but it does have its uses. If you intend to sell any of your own items on eBay then it can provide an excellent pool for research. Even if you have no intention of eBay selling it can still provide an insight into the items that people are currently searching for within your given industry. Never use Pulse trends alone to determine a sales plan, or any other business orientated plan. Instead, combine it with other market research you have managed to gather and create a much more powerful campaign.
